Start Up Black Screen Solved

[N0P3]

Problem:
Configuring BioShock HD Graphics settings to a specific resolution and turning off windowed mode doesn't persist when starting the game with the "play" button in the Steam Library view.

Symptoms:
Start up black screen with white pointer and Task Manager says the game is fully in memory (RAM commit around 2gb), but game's CPU usage is 0%.

Solution:
Start BioShock HD using the desktop icon or select it from the Steam Tray (system tray icon) MRU (most recently used) list. Game display settings persist with these two options without incident*. Continue reading through Instructions below for step by step issue resolution.

Instructions:
If game is started from your Steam Library and you get the black screen with the standard white cursor pointer in Windows 10 do the following: Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Windows Task Manager. This minimizes the game window and gives desktop focus to Windows Task Manager terminating the hang. Now, right click (mouse button 2) on the Bioshock entry in Windows Task Manager and select the "Switch to" option from the pop-up menu. At this time, BioShock HD will appear in a windowed mode viewport and running normally although CPU usage probably said something like 0% commit. The game will have focus thus your cursor is active, configure your desired graphics settings and exit the game. Start BioShock HD from the desktop icon or Steam Tray MRU list and ensure your settings persist (and they should).


Notes:
*Windows 10 Professional 64Bit, DirectX 10 (also directX 9c 2010 version), GTX275 (underclocked one strap below factory index), 4GB DDR2 RAM, Intel Core2Duo E8500 (no multiplier/underclocked).


Comments:
This title, like most all Unreal Engine based games up to and including UE4 HD tiles, run very well on my equipment; been benchmarking the system, independently, and have tested other titles like Unreal Tournament 4 and Paragon with excellent results. This indicates that performance will definitely increase exponentially on newer hardware like my Skylake build with a GTX1050 TI and DDR4 RAM --pretty much the point of benchmarking, establishing a base line performance rating.

BioShock HD, I believe, due to its HD format most likely utilizes UE4 now hence some issues in game due to backwards compatabilities being broken from version 3 and before; reasons for the breaks generally focus on HD availability, newer additions to the UE developer libraries and tools and hard-core optimizations.

All considered, bugs are to be expected in the BIOShock remasters, but it is becoming evident that not all are the fault of the game or its development engine. This is not the first time I've encountered Steam start up issues concerning the instantiation of a game title from the Library dashboard. It does seem strange that the graphics settings are targeted and only when the title is fired up from the Library Dashboard and nowhere else in the Steam process.

Remarks:
Am stuck trying to figure out how Windows 10 Task Manager reports 0% CPU usage for the game and why Steam Library Play functionality has such a pronounced, negative effect on game startup. It is starting to appear that BioShock HD (albeit its internal bugs) may be victimized by issue(s) outside its domain (authoritive and responsibility). These support issues further setting back the game's conversion to HD and its user base from enjoying the title compounding unrest.

Nice to see re-occuring problems in Steam and Windows can be relyed upon as future proofing for bald spots and stomach ulcers. I missed these bs issues since my Windows Vista days, but thanks to M$ and Valveeta I got my cheesy game play experience back.

[N0P3]

FYI - I donot work for Epic, 2k, Valveeta (cause it's the cheesiest) or Microtransaction (oops, Micro$oft); maybe I should.

[SunnyCaveman]

So I was told this same fix. On my last laptop Bioshock Remastered worked fine. GTX1070, i9, 16gb RAM. Now on my new system (GTX2080, i9, 128gb RAM), whenever I start up the game, it shows a black screen with a smaller white screen in the top left corner for 10-20 seconds then just crashes. So I tried opening task manager while this was going on, wouldn't even switch to task manager, just kept that same screen there. When I disabled full screen optimizations, it did the same thing except no white screen in the top left. I've tried a few other fixes including verifying game files, launching it with certain options, running as administrator, running a virus scan on my system, as well as running a task manager power shell scan on everything, even got a hold from someone at 2K and they had no clue what was wrong. Still nothing. So I'm just wondering if you knew if there is anything else I can try. As far as I know there should not be a reason why Bioshock Remastered should not be able to run on my new system.

[operator97]

Did you try "Alt-tabbing" into Task Manager? Also, what's the resolution of the laptop screen?

[SunnyCaveman]

Yes. I also tried alt-tabbing into the screen. No matter what I try it won't let me switch screens while that screen is black. My current resolution is 1080p, but I have tried other resolutions to try to navigate through this problem.

[TrustNoGuy]

Thank you sooo much!!!!!!
Now i can finally play !!! =)